A Divided City’s Election: The Detroit Mayoral Decision of 2017

Coleman A. Young II hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps

The Upcoming mayoral election in Detroit Michigan is expected to come down to the candidates Coleman A. Young II and incumbent mayor Mike Duggan. When Detroit filed for Bankruptcy in 2013, it was the largest city in the United States to do so, leading many to point fingers at the city’s politicians.

On the other hand, the city is now supposedly “experiencing a downtown building boom, and from watching its population base vanish to seeing … home prices rise” according to the New York Times.

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Many citizens outside of the downtown area feel like the growth has not affected them and that they’ve been left out by the corporation benefiting from Detroit’s real estate market. Mayor Duggan acknowledges that things are far from ideal in the city, but he also believes that it will continue to improve in time and cites multiple statistics that show improvement.

Duggan has received an endorsement from the Wayne County Democratic Black Caucus and is currently doing better in the polls than Coleman, his challenger.

Coleman A. Young II’s father was the first African-American mayor of Detroit and his legacy means a lot to a city with a significant black population. The former mayor Coleman worked to greatly help extend more opportunities to Detroit’s black community.

Part of his son’s campaign involves speaking to the legacy and history of African-American activism in the city and the threat of gentrification that could potentially price out the city’s African American residents. Still, Duggan respects both the former mayor Coleman’s legacy and his son.